EVALUATION OF ORNAMENTAL PLANT PRODUCTION IN SIIRT PROVINCE IN TERMS OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Arzu ALTUNTAŞ Assist. Prof. Dr., Siirt University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Siirt, Turkey Corresponding author: [email protected]

Ahmet BENLİAY Assist. Prof. Dr., Akdeniz University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Antalya, Turkey

ABSTRACT

Ornamental plants are defined as plants produced primarily for aesthetic, functional and economic purposes, especially because of their flowers, leaves and / or stems. The production of ornamental plants has continued from ancient times to today and it becomes a sector with increasing demand. In addition to providing economic power to countries, the ornamental plants sector is one of the sectors that provide solutions to the problems of the country such as increasing employment thanks to the market it creates, improving the economy and thus raising the living standards of people. 1 Our country is one of the advantageous countries in ornamental plant cultivation. The favorable conditions such as geography, climatic conditions and ecological structure enable to be a high rate of biodiversity and to grow the number of ornamental plant species. Especially Aegean, Mediterranean and Marmara regions are leading the ornamental plants. The aim of this study is to examine the sectoral status of Siirt province in ornamental plant cultivation and to evaluate it with SWOT analysis method. According to the results, agricultural activities are carried out intensively and labour force is cheap in Siirt and it has a long vegetation period. But nevertheless public haven’t got enough information about ornamental plant varieties and production of them. The reluctance of the domestic producer and lack of information are among the most important reasons why the sector cannot develop in this province.

Keywords: Ornamental plant, Ornamental plant sector, Siirt, SWOT

1. INTRODUCTION

Ornamental plants are produced or grown by different methods for aesthetic, functional and economic purposes [1]. Today, the ornamental plants take place near the top among the most commonly used design elements especially in cities and urban centers. Because they provide biological comfort, aesthetic perception and thus to re-energize the human-nature interaction with psychological relaxation. So that the production of ornamental plants gains importance day by day, product range increases and production methods improve. Thus, the ornamental plants sector tends to grow with increasing demand. The increasing of environmental awareness and the demand growth for ornamental plants and the becoming more popular of landscape design applications are among the most important reasons for the development of the sector. The aim of this study is to evaluate the status of ornamental plants in Siirt province using SWOT analysis. Siirt province has been selected

Year 3 (2019) Vol:12 Issued in DECEMBER, 2019 www.ejons.co.uk as the study area because it is one of the provinces where agricultural production is intense and rich in rural areas.

2. MATERIAL AND METHOD 2.1. Material

The main material of the study is Siirt province. In addition, previous studies, visuals, figures and tables have been used as material. The opinions of sector employees and experts were also utilized.

The province of Siirt, which is selected as the study area, (Figure 1) is one of the 9 provinces in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Siirt is located on 41 ° 57 ”east longitude and 37 ° 55” north latitude and it is surrounded by Sırnak and Van from the east, Batman and Bitlis from the north, Batman from the west, Mardin and Sırnak from the south. According to TUIK [2], the population of Siirt is 331,670 in 2018. 65.8% of the population lives in the city center and 34.2% lives in the rural areas.

2

Figure 1. Geographic location of Siirt

2.2. Method

The study was carried out in three stages: data collection, analysis of the collected data and evaluation of the results by SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is a technique used to identify strengths and weaknesses related to a subject under investigation and opportunities and threats arising from external factors (Figure 2). The purpose of this analysis is to develop plans and strategies that take maximum advantage of existing strengths and opportunities and minimize the impact of threats and weaknesses, taking into account internal and external factors [3]. This method is widely used in many issues such as problem and situation identification, solution generation, strategy determination and analytical decision making [4,5,6,7].

3. RESULTS 3.1. Situation of Ornamental Plants Sector in the World

The history of ornamental plants cannot be clearly drawn. But as it is understood from most historical sources, the relationship between ornamental plants and human being is as old as civilization and even human existence. Because ornamental plants use as an object of beauty and in the form of gardens as an art form, for the purposes of medical and aromatic use, for the purpose of expressing religious and philosophical beliefs from past to present [8, 9,10]. It is possible to see traces of aesthetic

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purpose usage of plants in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, Maya, Islam, Turkish-Islam, Medieval Western Europe, Renaissance, New and Modern Age civilizations [10, 11, 12]. Nowadays, ornamental plants have become an important sector in the world economy.

Figure 2. SWOT Analysis [13]

However, the fact that ornamental plants are a sub-sector and the emergence of concepts such as production, marketing and employment at every stage in the economic sense is seen especially at the beginning of the 20th century. Urbanization has a major role in this development. The increase in the education level in the countries and the development criteria such as the gross national product, in particular, has led to the development of the ornamental plants sector in direct proportion. Thus, with 3 an increasing importance, this sector has become an important sub-sector especially for countries in terms of production area and value. Developments such as specialization in the process from production to marketing and consumption, and standardization of production with the development of technology enabled the sector to be named as “Ornamental Plants Industry [14].

The production of ornamental plants shows a rapid increase all over the world. Ornamental plant cultivation has started to gain importance in countries such as USA, Japan, Italy, Netherlands and Latin America and Africa. Because of the favorable climatic conditions and cheap labor, countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia and Kenya have become important cut flower production and export centers. Supply of ornamental plants in the world show increase [15].

According to the 2017 data, the amount of the area where cut flower and potted plants are produced in the world is approximately 650,000 hectares. Approximately 480,000 hectares of this is the production area of Asia / Pacific continent countries. The least production is made in the Middle East region [15].

Today, the high demand for ornamental plants ensures that the competition in this sector remains alive. While some traditional sector markets lose their old power, new countries try to take part in the market. Countries such as India, China, USA, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand meet their domestic market demands. In addition, producers such as Ecuador and Colombia produce export oriented products [15].

Cut flowers are the leading product groups exported in the ornamental plants sector. This is followed by live flowers, flower bulbs, mosses and tree branches (Table 1). According to 2016 data, the Netherlands, Colombia and Germany are the top three exporters (Table 2). And also Germany, the Netherlands and the USA are the top three importers (Table 3) [15].

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Table 1. World Ornamental Plants Exports by Product Group (1000 USD) [15] PRODUCT GROUP 2015 2016 Flower Bulbs 1.452.163 1.455.387 Live Flowers 7.275.909 7.279.508 Cut Flowers 8.121.355 7.929.992 Mosses and Tree Branches 1.044.858 1.085.073

Table 2. World Ornamental Plants Exports by Countries in 2016 [15] EXPORTING Export Value Israel 141.559 COUNTRIES (1.000 USD) Malaysia 139.454 The Netherlands 9.846.802 Lithuania 139.194 Colombia 1.328.138 Costa Rica 138.882 Germany 1.012.532 Poland 135.115 Italy 833.914 Thailand 119.348 Ecuador 806.932 Guatemala 90.796 Kenya 732.445 England 90.565 Belgium 603.055 Portugal 86.762 Denmark 464.644 Japan 83.900 USA 424.420 Turkey 81.613 Canada 366.271 India 78.593 Spain 360.082 Mexico 76.419 China 331.766 Egypt 73.133 Ethiopia 258.300 South Africa 67.452 4 Taiwan 194.317 Others 849.580 France 154.174 TOTAL 20.110.157

Table 3. World Ornamental Plants Imports by Countries in 2016 [15] IMPORTING Import Value Canada 376.669 COUNTRIES (1.000 USD) Austria 356.061 Germany 3.031.900 Denmark 333.194 The Netherlands 2.432.778 Sweden 278.056 USA 2.164.983 Poland 262.146 England 1.594.296 Norway 243.802 France 1.152.602 Spain 231.699 Japan 582.834 China 226.260 Italy 580.014 Czechia 179.848 Russia 577.756 Finland 162.387 Switzerland 557.080 Others 2.660.105 Belgium 443.315 TOTAL 18.427.785

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3.2. Situation of Ornamental Plants Sector in Turkey

It increased 2.5 fold about production areas of ornamental plants in Turkey between 2002-2017. However, more production areas are needed in order to reach the sector targets. Production area amounts by product groups and ornamental plants production areas by provinces are given in Table 4 and Table 5 [15]

Table 4. Production area amounts by production groups between 2002-2017 [15] Ornamental Plants Production Areas (da) 2002 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Cut Flowers 10.09 15.434 10.973 10.874 11.213 11.047 11.374 11.826 11.949 11.748 Indoor Ornamental 800 1.769 998 1.127 721 1.105 1.081 1.465 1.312 1.650 Plants Outdoor Ornamental 8.017 19.611 33.853 35.071 35.724 32.421 35.996 32.293 34.721 36.263 Plants Flower Bulbs 256 755 543 788 1.147 553 568 613 597 426 TOTAL 19.17 37.569 47.009 47.860 48.805 45.127 49.019 46.197 48.580 50.089

Table 5. Ornamental plant production areas by provinces [15] 5 Ornamental plant production areas by provinces (da) Province 2005 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

İzmir 7.208 7.803 7.257 7.343 9.652 9.269 13.899 14.347 16.227 15.458

Sakarya 3.698 7.128 18.785 13.067 11.325 12.544 12.643 10.512 10.690 10.996

Antalya 5.490 5.057 5.054 5.153 5.200 5.637 5.687 5.539 5.590 5.577

Yalova 4.444 6.952 4.502 10.146 2.828 2.730 2.792 2.875 2.746 3.275

Bursa 1.333 3.220 2.748 3.712 2.986 3.170 3.250 2.839 2.873 2.892

İstanbul 1.609 770 747 681 598 496 528 340 515 515

Others 2.592 6.640 707 6.381 16.216 11.283 10.221 9.746 9.940 11.376

TOTAL 26.376 37.569 47.009 47.860 48.805 45.128 49.019 46.198 48.581 50.089

İzmir, Sakarya, Antalya, Yalova and Bursa are the cities where maximum ornamental plant production are made. Sakarya, Yalova, Istanbul, Adana, Osmaniye have an important place in the production of indoor and outdoor plants. Also Antalya and İzmir have an important place in the production of cut flowers. In the Marmara and Aegean Regions (Istanbul, Yalova, Izmir, Aydin), production is generally directed to the domestic market. Export-oriented production is carried out in and around Antalya [15]. The Netherlands, Britain, Uzbekistan, Germany, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Romania, Georgia and Bulgaria are the countries where are

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exported ornamental plants by Turkey. Especially exports are made to Uzbekistan, Germany, Turkmenistan, Iraq and Azerbaijan about live plant group. England, Holland, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine are the most important markets of our country in the export of cut flowers. About the export of flower bulbs, the Netherlands and Romania are the most important markets of our country [15].

3.3. Evaluation of Ornamental Plants Production in Siirt Province by SWOT Analysis

Siirt province mostly consists of high mountains and plateaus. The total land area of the province is 562,705 hectares and 102,894 hectares of this area is used as agricultural area (Table 6). 41.2% of the agricultural land is considered as cereal area. In addition, other uses of agricultural lands are greenhouse cultivation, vegetable areas, orchards, vineyard areas, legume cultivation areas, fallow lands, industry and forage crops areas (Table 7) [16].

Table 6. Land size of Siirt province [16] Non- Agricultural Meadow/ Forest/ Agricultural Area Area Pasture Shrubbery Districts Area (ha) Area Rate Area Rate Area Rate Rate Area (ha) (ha) (%) (ha) (%) (ha) (%) (%) Center 63.549 17.351 27,3 14.241 22,4 12.542 19,7 19.414 30,5 Tillo 11.998 4.110 34,3 3.567 29,7 2.197 18,3 2.123 17,7 Baykan 48.499 7.491 15,4 9.034 18,6 9.882 20,4 22.092 45,6 Eruh 100.400 8.388 8,4 11.220 11,2 23.063 23 57.768 57,5 Kurtalan 80.422 50.399 62,7 13.489 16,8 9.908 12,3 6.624 8,2 6 Pervari 162.998 8.765 5,4 37.445 23 45.241 27,8 71.515 43,9 Sirvan 94.799 6.390 6,7 31.942 33,7 21.608 22,8 34.858 36,8 TOTAL 562.705 102.894 18 120.938 22 124.441 22 214.394 38

Table 7. Uses of agricultural areas of Siirt province [16] Agricultural areas (ha) Center Tillo Baykan Eruh Kurtalan Pervari S irvanTOTAL Cereal Field 3.200 200 2.475 3.350 29.750 1.700 1.800 42.475 Fallow lands 2.600 1.500 2.500 11 9.000 - 1.500 17.111 Vegetable areas (Including 395 8 150 532 823 65 50 2.023 greenhouse cultivation) Orchards 9.000 2.330 1.783 3.017 4.006 1.070 2.550 23.756 Vineyard areas 200 60 450 600 750 60 180 2.300 Legume cultivation areas 1.100 - 60 140 3.530 20 8 4.858 Industry crops areas 280 - - - 2.170 - - 2.450 Forage crops areas 575 12 73 738 370 5.851 302 7.921 Total 17.350 4.110 7.491 8.388 50.399 8.765 6.390 102.894

Ornamental plant cultivation in Siirt province, despite the courses and supports provided by the Department of Horticulture of the Faculty of Agriculture of Siirt University, are almost nonexistent and these are unregistered amateur producers. However, Siirt is one of our advantageous provinces about ornamental plant cultivation. The production of ornamental plants in Siirt province was evaluated by SWOT analysis and the results are given in Table 8.

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Table 8. SWOT analysis of ornamental plant cultivation in Siirt  Having large production areas in Siirt  Long vegetation period  Little or no production in neighboring STRENGTHS provinces  Existence and incentives of DIKA (Dicle Development Agency)  Having cheap labor  Especially endemic and rich geophyte population and oossibility of using these species in landscape designs OPPORTUNITIES  Different climate patterns  Opening of some sectoral courses especially at the university  Application of various supports to the ornamental plants sector by the state  Public insistence on cultivation of some species (pistachio, pomegranate, etc.) belonging to the region  Lack of professional breeders / Lack of technical knowledge of manufacturers  Lack of capital for existing agriculturalists  Lack of knowledge about ornamental plant species and ornamental plant sector 7  Not encouraging producers to grow WEAKNESSES ornamental plants by both private and public institutions and organizations  Public’s demand for the same kind of ornamental plants  Lack of knowledge about plant protection and plant health  No use of modern techniques in production  Lack of infrastructure in production areas  Lack of publicity and so on.  Being away from flower auctions and markets  Uncontrolled and illegal removal of natural flower bulbs  Danger of extinction of rich gene resources THREATS  Problems from unorganized producers  Lack of desired level of designer- practitioner-producer relationship  Taking long time for the investments to turn into money about outdoor ornamental plants production

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4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In the ornamental plants sector, which is constantly developing in the world, countries are making serious strides and efforts to increase their market share and to strengthen their market position with the right strategies. This situation creates great competition among all the countries where the sector develops. This also applies for Turkey. Despite all the shortcomings of the sector in Turkey it has so many positive features and power (Karaguzel et al. 2010). Its biodiversity, geographical location and climatic conditions and so on make our country more advantageous among other countries.

Improving the structural characteristics of the enterprises in our country, dissemination the use of technology, compliance with standards and following a product diversity policy considering market demands, increasing domestic consumption will bring the sector to a solid point at national and international level [15].

The development of Turkey’s ornamental plants sector and to become popular in the international market is depend to be guided by appropriate strategies, with using internal dynamics of the biological richness of our country, using climatic and geographical advantages and opportunities [15].

Siirt is a city which has one of the most favorable conditions for the production of ornamental plants with its characteristics such as soil structure, climate and the length of vegetation period. But unfortunately, it cannot use this potential for some reasons mentioned before. However, the ornamental plants sector has become one of the sectors which is increasing and strengthening in the world and creating considerable economic inputs in the economies of regions and even 8 countries. It is very important that Siirt has a say in ornamental plants sector by using its advantages in terms of rural development, regional development, development of socio-cultural and socio-economic structure, improvement of living conditions, increase in welfare level, employment creation and so on.

As a result, correct and sustainable government support policies, quality based on the use of technology and production to international standards, association and organization, R&D and innovation, right marketing strategies and advanced distribution network turn into the ornamental plants sector as a much more important actor in generally for Turkey and in specially for Siirt.

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